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Looking to change the game

Min Peng enjoys a challenge and it is precisely this trait that inspires her to move out of her comfort zone. She reckons the more you do, the more opportunities you have to come up with creative, cutting-edge ideas.

For Min Peng, the biggest growth and learning happens outside of her comfort zone. Looking at her career background, you quickly realise that she enjoys new challenges. Even though she started her career in public affairs as an English major, she’s also currently making a mark in the commercial business in Shell, working as the Business Development Strategy Manager for North East Asia in the Shell Lubricants Supply Chain.

Min joined Shell in 2004 and since then she’s worked in supply chain management, doing everything from logistics operations and materials planning to supply network planning and project management. In the past four years she has been responsible for all the warehousing and transportation activities of Shell Lubricants in the Greater China and Korea area, safely delivering high-quality products at optimal costs to lubricants customers.

Under her leadership, the North East Asia region has demonstrated a good track record of leading logistics cost and operational performance in the Shell Lubricants supply chain. Her most recent achievement was the outsourcing of the China logistics activities for which she and her team won the Shell Downstream Director’s Award in 2011.

It is precisely this award that Min counts as the proudest moment of her career. “The project that won us the award was truly game-changing. Deep down, I have this excitement about new, cutting-edge ideas and plans. I had to map out how everything would work, without any previous examples or references – I absolutely loved it! I still live according to the lessons and values I learned on this project,” she says.

"Being a Shell employee has taught me to always be myself, but to continue growing and improving. The longer I work here, the more confident I get about who I am and what I can contribute."

Shell has helped Min to achieve balance. “Thanks to the support and encouragement from my current line manager as well as the flexible working policy, I’m able to divide my time fairly between work, myself and my daughter, Layla,” she explains. “I really benefit from regular catch-ups with my line manager – not only does he act as my mentor and coach but he’s also become my friend. Shell is like a big family and I can truly say that I’ve finally found inner peace.”

Min believes that open and honest communication will help you progress in your career. “I’ve worked with various managers – all of them with different leadership styles and cultures. But there’s nothing more crucial to your success than establishing a relationship of trust with your manager,” she says. “I’ve learnt so much from all of them.

I look for each manager’s bright spark; that little something they have that are unique to them – that’s the trait I try to learn from. And as soon as you trust each other, you can start to challenge each other’s thinking. The end goal is always to help the individual while helping the business grow at the same time.”

Min has also learned that you need to be open-minded. “You have to be brave enough to think beyond where you are now. If you’re willing to try new things and if you’re open and honest about what you want, you’ll fit into Shell,” she says.

“Being a Shell employee has taught me to always be myself, but to continue growing and improving. The longer I work here, the more confident I get about who I am and what I can contribute.”

More on Min

Min and her daughter Layla are volunteers for Friends of Nature, a non-governmental organisation promoting awareness about China’s most pressing environmental problems.

As a child, she wanted to become a professional dancer, specifically focusing on Chinese ethnic dancing. She still does salsa dancing in her free time.

She collects teapots and currently owns about 35 of them, with the collection continuously growing. This, of course, makes her a passionate tea drinker.